STRENGTH ✷ act two, chapter one,
━━━━━ talks of love and centaurs get sacked.
PUBLISHED . . . February 25th, 2024
EDITED . . . To Be Determined

   AFTER SUMMER HAD PASSED THEM BY, and Luke's betrayal was announced, it took a few months for Camp Half-Blood to heal from the news.

   It had shocked all of them. For the whole month after, everyone was different. The atmosphere was less cheery, less like the place's usual vibe. Hermes campers were acting out by stealing more than usual, and people seemed to be more cautious of one another. Nabi didn't berate Connor and Travis' rise in pranks, or point out Silena's slight change in behaviour for the first few weeks.

   Some campers started disappearing, one of them was Chris — he left without a word of his whereabouts, despite previously being a year-round camper. Nabi was a little worried for him.

Scratch that, she was worried sick.

Where could he have gone? He wasn't the first to disappear, but that didn't make it any less harrowing. Nabi was also concerned for the other campers who had vanished, and those that had left after the summer holidays without ever returning.

   Of course, as a demigod... it wasn't a surprise. It didn't mean it hurt any less to think about, though. Half-bloods never lived very long; a misfortune that came with the parentage. But Nabi had an inkling that there was another reason why the amount of campers had dwindled.

"I just... I have a feeling about it." Nabi told Silena, as they sat on her bed in the Aphrodite cabin. The rest of Silena's siblings were chilling there, too.

Currently, Silena was doing her English homework (Chiron assigned them stuff and taught them things in preparation for the real world... c'mon, demigods wanna get into universities too!) whilst Nabi was talking to her, playing with a cat in her lap...

Honey — a soft, ginger cat that Connor and Travis had gifted her for her birthday. Her soft little pet was a 'menace' according to everyone else, but she'd never been anything short of sweet to Nabi. Maybe, they were all just silly liars. No cat could be so cute, and at the same time, secretly evil. Right? Silena scribbled on her work, and mumbled, "Maybe you're just overthinking it."

"Nabi's right, though," A voice from the right — Mitchell, one of Silena's Aphrodite brothers, said whilst putting new sheets on his bed, "there have been less people... coming back. Less than the... the usual."

The 'usual' wasn't very nice to think about, either.

"I... I hope they're okay." Silena muttered, her eyes focused on a bunch of words that Nabi found difficult to read. She must've really enjoyed English or something, because she refused to look up, or maybe she was just as concerned for the missing campers.

Nabi had talked about the people vanishing before, but Silena always seemed to be especially uncomfortable with it. Nabi played with Honey's paws as the cat yawned, cutely. "Yeah."

   Honey meowed, like she was reassuring her too. Nabi smiled down at her.

   "We should stop talking about that stuff," Silena said, "it won't do us any good being... even more worried. How about we talk about something else?"

   "Oh my gods," Lacy perked up from one side of the cabin, spinning in a swivel chair to face them instead of the vanity she was using, "I have gossip, if anyone wants to here it?"

   Everyone began humming acknowledgments, a chorus of 'duh!' or 'yeah!'s in the air. There was always chatter whenever she was in the Aphrodite cabin — they were known for being gossips (Nabi hated the bad reputation the cabin had...), but in reality, they probably weren't as bad as the Hermes cabin. The god of messengers had kids who could talk talk, and they had the most campers in one cabin. She also knew that the Apollo cabin had a knack of gossip too, and blamed it on having to know everything since their dad was the god of prophecies...

   Besides, Nabi could admit that she enjoyed it — so long as they didn't make fun of or bash anyone. She spent so much time with Silena, that naturally, she'd gotten fairly close with the rest of cabin ten.

   "Y'know that new kid, son of Demeter, the one that showed up last month," Lacy began, "he's into Nyssa from the Hephaestus cabin."

"He's got no chance," Drew snorted, one of Silena's sisters, "that girl's as straight as a rainbow... pfft, that girl is the rainbow."

   Honey meowed, and even though technically, Nabi couldn't understand her, she felt like the cat had said something along the lines of, 'Damn right, sister.'

   Mitchell said, "She's a lesbian, right?"

  "Wait, really?" Nabi said, "But she's... she's been on a date with that guy from the Ares cabin, I forgot his name..."

   "She can still be a lesbian," Silena explained, "sometimes, people date other people because they feel like they're supposed to — not because they want to."

   Nabi had 'liked' different guys before. Actually, her and Weston O'Connell, a son of Athena, had been on a date last year. They'd decided to stay friends, but in the end... it felt like she was more excited about the idea of a relationship than the actual guy himself.

She still cringed every time she remembered the awkward silence after he had leaned in for a kiss and she had backed away. Yikes.

   Nabi couldn't help feeling bad for Weston; she always used to think that something must've been wrong with her for not liking him back. He was sweet, and everything that Nabi was supposed to like, but...

   "I think I'm the same." Nabi mumbled.

   The Aphrodite siblings all gave her a smile, and Mitchell said, "That's okay."

"I mean, I only found out I liked girls last year," Nabi said, "I just didn't know it was... exclusively."

   She used to think that something was wrong with her. But Silena gave her a whole pep talk and taught her that it was nothing to be afraid or embarrassed about—people loved who they loved. Nabi had came to terms with it all, soon after.

You couldn't control how much love you had for others; you couldn't control who your love was directed to. But it made you who you were as a person, and there was nothing wrong with that.

Drew teased, "I think we all knew you liked girls, even before that crush you had on me."

Nabi rolled her eyes and blushed, embarrassed. "What? It was only for a week, and I just found you pretty, okay?"

Drew laughed, flicking her hair jokingly, "I know I'm pretty, you don't have to tell me twice."

"I take it back." Nabi huffed.

"Ohh," Mitchell nodded, "so that's why Drew got that sticky note warning signed from the Ares cabin..."

Nabi raised an eyebrow. "Drew got a what?"

Lacy cleared her throat, "Anyway, the new guy, he's called Alex. But you know how he showed up with a twin sister?"

"Mhm?"

"Yeah...?"

"Oh my gods... no way."

   "Mee-ow!" (Honey seemed a little too invested in this drama for a cat...)

"Yes way," Lacy grinned, "Nyssa's totally in love with his sister, Opal. I'm talking can't even speak to her without getting tongue-tied."

Everyone collectively gasped or squealed, and Nabi had to put a hand to her mouth. Mitchell asked, "Does Opal know?"

   "She has to, if Nyssa's that obvious!" Nabi said.

   Silena grumbled, "You're one to talk, girl..."

"As if you aren't any better, Lena." Drew mumbled. Silena glared at her. What was that about?

   "See, that's the thing," Lacy continued, "she knows, like, definitely. But she hates Nyssa."

"What?" Mitchell whined, "But they'd be so cute together! Why does she hate her?"

Lacy said, "Nyssa wanted to impress the Demeter girl by making her a machine, or whatever. But somehow, her invention accidentally set fire to a few of Opal's plants, and..."

Conversations lasted super long in the Aphrodite cabin. They all groaned and gasped during certain parts of Lacy's story like it was a drama from a TV show. Nabi waited for them to finish, before piping up, "Can I ask a question?"

Everyone turned to her, and she asked, "How do people even know when they fall in love? I'm not talking about liking people, I mean love love. It sounds... difficult."

   "It... it is," Silena told her. Her eyebrows scrunched together, and she said, "It can hurt. Take it from Aphrodite's kids."

   "Have any of you ever fallen in love?" Nabi asked.

   Silena stayed silent, and the rest of them did too. Lacy answered, "Most of us haven't yet, but when we do... well, Silena's right. It has to hurt."

Nabi knew she was referring to the 'Rite of Passage,' which was a tradition that the cabin held. The Aphrodite kids believed they had to fall for someone and break their heart as a sign of devotion to their mother. Nabi thought it was horrible. Silena shook her head, "No. I didn't say it had to. I just said that it can... but we need to end that tradition."

   "It's a tradition for a reason..." Lacy muttered.

   Drew bit her lip, and nodded. "What if our mom doesn't like that?"

   "Listen," Silena sighed, "I've— I know what it's like to be manipulated by love."

She glanced at Nabi, like she was trying to confess something; a silent message through her eyes that Nabi couldn't decipher.

Nabi knitted her eyebrows together. Silena had never mentioned she'd been in a serious relationship before. For someone who had been her friend for years... wouldn't she have at least mentioned it in passing? The girl said, sternly, "Love doesn't need to hurt for you to find the right person. It's meant to uplift you — make you a better version of yourself."

"But how would you know?" Nabi repeated, stroking Honey absentmindedly, "How would you know if it's love?"

Silena gave her a gentle smile, one that didn't quite reach her eyes. She turned slightly so that Nabi couldn't see her entire face, and told her, "When you know, you know."

   The rest of them didn't seem like they noticed the shift in Silena — the way her throat bobbed and her lip curled, but Nabi did.

She knew.

Nabi knew the girl too well... she knew that without a doubt, Silena was hiding something.

【 🦋 】

   EVER SINCE THE DREAM WITH HER FATHER, Nabi had found a reason to improve with her fighting. Currently, she was sparring with Clarisse in the arena — honing her skills. She'd gotten better over the past year.

   But even though she'd decided to actually start using her powers, she wasn't any less mad.

   She'd been at the camp for five years... surely, he could've claimed her sooner, or at the very least, gave a full run-down of everything.

It had to do with her mother and how she was a half-blood, sure, but that didn't explain anything! It just... made Nabi even more confused. It made Nabi even more angry. If only he wasn't a freaking Greek god!

   ...Being a half-blood sucked.

   She practiced using her powers in some of her matches with Clarisse, in others she practiced her swordsmanship, or even both at once. Gradually, she was getting better. She wasn't as scared of using her powers as she used to be, but technically, she hadn't used them in a proper fight against monsters yet.

In this match, Nabi was only using her undead abilities, but neither were holding back.

   "Is that all you got," Clarisse smirked, spinning a sword in her hands, "cause you haven't won a single match this morning, huh, Nabs?"

"You're so annoying," Nabi huffed, "this is only the third match we've had."

She took a breath, and willed a few undead beings to emerge from a black hole in the ground — two on either side of Nabi appeared, and rushed towards Clarisse with spears in their hands.

Nabi frowned as Clarisse knocked one of them down with a few powerful strikes, but she dashed forward — using a shadow to slash Clarisse with, wielding the darkness like a sword of her own — as an attempt to catch the Ares girl off guard. Clarisse scowled, as Nabi raised her hand down and directed it to surge towards her opponent. Clarisse was just barely able to dodge the shadow's slash and parry it with her own weapon. But Nabi was relentless.

She continued by summoning two more undead soldiers, right as Clarisse managed to defeat the previous ones. She was having a hard time keeping up with Nabi's attacks. Clarisse scoffed, "This is so unfair."

"You said I could use my powers," Nabi smirked, as another shadow wrapped around Clarisse's other foot, "so, I'm using them."

   Clarisse slashed at the shadows, and they broke their hold of her, with enough time to destroy the last remaining undead beings. She lunged towards Nabi, but the other girl made a shield of darkness to block her attack, then the barrier zoomed towards the Ares girl — she went stumbling back at the surprisingly strong force.

That didn't stop Clarisse, though. Her expression grew more annoyed, and she charged at Nabi even faster than last time. She slashed and sliced, a blur of celestial bronze, with a few of her attacks landing that sent Nabi backwards. Both of them were losing patience. Nabi just barely ducked the next hit that came her way, then took it as an opportunity to wrap a shadow around Clarisse's weapon.

She yanked it from Clarisse's grasp too fast for her to steady her grip on it, and within seconds, Nabi had the celestial bronze sword in her possession. She landed a blow to Clarisse's side, knocking her down with enough time for Nabi to raise the sword to Clarisse's neck. Nabi smiled, "I think I win this one."

   "...You got lucky." The curly haired girl grumbled.

"I got good. You just can't admit it."

   Nabi giggled. Sometimes, Clarisse could be a sore loser. She offered a hand up and the sword back. Clarisse scoffed, but took the hand, anyway. She said, "Next round, I'm winning."

   "We'll see about that." Nabi said, holding the sword up to her.

   Clarisse took it from her clutches, getting ready for the next fight with another grumble, "I miss when you were less annoying."

   "When I wasn't as good with my powers?" Nabi asked.

   "No, actually," Clarisse said, "you were this annoying way before that."

   Nabi flashed her a teasing grin, stretching one of her arms. She laughed, "First to five wins?"

   "Mm, nah," Clarisse smirked, "five wins is boring — ten wins."

   Nabi groaned, getting into a fight stance, "That's way too many..."

   "Uh huh, too bad," The Ares girl got into the same stance, "don't be surprised when you lose, angel."

   "Bring it on!"

   They sparred for a long while. Round after round, fight after fight, left the two of them exhausted. Once they were finally tired, chests heaving, they put their weapons away after catching their breaths and sat next to each other on one of the benches. They shared a water bottle together. Nabi had drank all of her water ages ago, and Clarisse let her have some of hers.

Nabi wanted to tell Clarisse about Silena. She decided against it, at least, for now.

   "See," Clarisse said, handing the bottle over to Nabi after she had drank a good amount, "told you I'd win."

   "It was eight — ten," Nabi's grumbled, drinking some water to mask the wince of her aching muscles, "I almost won."

   "Almost doesn't mean you did," Clarisse chuckled, "but you didn't do too bad, y'know. I know you've had a year to improve... but I didn't think you'd get this good."

   "Yeah well," Nabi said, "I had a good teacher."

   "A great teacher, actually." Clarisse smirked.

   Nabi mumbled under her breath, jokingly, "Not a very humble one, though."

   "What did you say to me?"

   Nabi threw the bottle at her face. It smacked Clarisse's nose and she yelped in surprise. Nabi gasped, "Shit! I was only joking— I thought you'd catch it before it would hit you."

   Clarisse caught the bottle right as it was about to hit the floor, then raised an eyebrow and huffed, "I give you a drink, and this is how you repay me?"

   "Uhm, yeah." Nabi blinked.

   "It didn't hurt. You're fine." Clarisse rolled her eyes with a familiar fondness to them. She said, "Oh, I forgot to tell you, but I'm leaving for a week."

   "What? Because I threw your water bottle at you?" Nabi scrunched up her nose, confused.

   "No, idiot," Clarisse snorted, getting off of the bench and offering Nabi a hand, "I'm visiting my mom, in Arizona."

"Oh, right." Nabi took her hand, intertwining their fingers together and squeezing gently.

She was a little surprised — Clarisse didn't have a bad relationship with her mother, per se, but she stayed all year at the camp for a reason. She used to complain about how her mom was too overbearing, was a tough woman to please, but that didn't mean the Ares girl hated her. Clarisse shrugged, "Haven't visited her in a while."

"Y'know, speaking of visiting," Nabi remembered, "Coach Hedge is coming back soon, from a mission, and he said we should spend some time with him."

Coach Hedge — the satyr who had brought them to camp — was close with the both of them. He always treated the two like they were his own kids, complaining about how they were growing up too fast and all that. Clarisse nodded, "Huh, we should. Our old man's probably gonna start crying when he sees us."

   "He totally will," Nabi sighed, "then he's gonna start beating us up as a 'form of endearment' like he always does."

   "His punches never really do anything. I think that's a perfectly good form of endearment." Clarisse shrugged.

"Of course you do," Nabi said, teasingly. The conch horn sounded. She tugged Clarisse along, and said, "c'mon, let's go to the showers and hurry! I'm starving."

【 🦋 】

   WHEN THEY ARRIVED AT THE DINING PAVILION, Mr. D was at the front, about to give a speech. Everyone seemed curious as they murmured to each other. Nabi sat next to Travis at the Hermes table, opposite from Connor, and asked, "Why is Mr. D over there? Chiron usually does all the important stuff..."

"Yeah, no clue," Travis mumbled, "maybe he's sick of all of us — gonna turn every one of us into a dolphin."

"Wasn't fun the first time, it definitely won't be fun on the second." Connor grimaced.

Nabi made a confused face. "Wait, backtrack, he's turned you into a dolphin?"

   "Weren't you there?"

   Usually Nabi didn't make a note on how many times her friends turned into dolphins — maybe she should start, though. Then again, you'd think she'd remember such an odd event. Her mouth formed an 'o' as she remembered, "It was when you disguised a dynamite stick as alcohol, right? In the Big House?"

"Yeah, he fell for the bait," Connor smiled at the memory but then it dropped when he remembered, "and we ended up on toilet clean up duty for two months... sigh..."

Travis snorted, "Did you really just say 'sigh' out loud?"

  "Alright, brats!" Dionysus' voice boomed, "Listen up, I've got news to share... important news. Chiron's getting sacked."

   Nabi couldn't believe it. Immediately, people stood up, voices were raised, and his words stirred a commotion within the dining pavilion. No centaur who'd raised some of the greatest heroes of all time, throughout entire generations, just gets... tossed out like that without warning.

   "What?"

   "Chiron's been here for centuries! No way!"

   "Why'd he get fired?"

Clearly, Mr. D found all the noise irritating, but he waved a hand dismissively, and announced, "Alright, settle down! I said, settle down! He's in the Big House, packing and stuff. You've all got a week or so to say your goodbyes. Now, we have a new camp director joining us in Chiron's absence... everyone, meet Tantalus."

The name sounded familiar, but Nabi couldn't quite put her finger on it.

   A men entered the building. From the moment Nabi saw him, she felt uneasy. He seemed so... creepy. His cheeks were sunken, and his skin was saggy, to the point where it looked like it'd fall off of his bones. He had dark bags under his even darker eyes, dirty fingernails, and horribly cut gray hair. What made it worse was his attire — a threadbare orange jumpsuit, like a stereotypical prisoner from jail. It was a look that Silena would've never approved of.

"Greetings, demigods!" Tantalus grinned, but he came off as sinister and strange, "I hope we can all get along, my dears!"

   Travis threw his cheeseburger at the man.

   Tantalus opened his mouth when he saw it coming his way. He seemed almost... excited to have a sloppy burger thrown at his face? It was weird. But somehow, it flew backwards, like Tantalus had some sort of invisible barrier surrounding him that the burger had hit. It surprised all of them, and Travis threw his cup at him to ensure they hadn't imagined it.

   This time, it landed.

   "Gah!" Tantalus yelped, "Who did that?"

   Travis pointed to his brother, but Connor slapped his finger away before Tantalus could scan the crowd and spot them. Nabi gave them a shake of her head, trying to suppress a laugh from bubbling up her throat — luckily, she managed to stay silent.

   Dionysus continued on, "If you got any problems, refer to Tantalus, from now on. I'm still not dealin' with any of you kids. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna take a nap and dream of getting drunk."

"Why'd he get fired?" Someone from the crowd of demigods had repeated the question, raising a hand.

Tantalus cheerily grinned, but once again, all Nabi felt was a sense of discomfort. "Why, I must be the one to tell you! You see—"

"Chiron," Dionysus interrupted with a sigh, his next words causing absolute pandemonium, "HAS BEEN BLAMED FOR THE POISONING OF THALIA'S TREE."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

𝗥𝗜𝗞𝗔'𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗘𝗦!

જ⁀➴ wanted to show nabi's improvement after a whole year of training as well as show the characters' friendships stuff, so this chapter was mainly kind of just set up, sozzles ! before the sea of monsters starts sea of monster - ing if u catch my drift ... i can't wait for the things that'll happen 🙈 also exams are close so if i slow down on the updates then that's probs why 🫡

ok but i was lowkey invested in the aphrodite cabin's tea .. even tho i was the one who wrote it uhm ,, also 'when u know u know' like margaret is such a good song . plus c'mon ... u rlly think nabi wouldn't be suspicious when she's besties w/ silena ?? our angel girl's a smart cookie !! not smart enough to see clarisse's obvious signs tho ,, 😪

might add an extra thing or two before clarisse saves percy, annie & tyson because she probably ran into a lil trouble before that happened so + wanted to spice things up 🤷‍♀️ i really wish season 2 was already out so i could incorporate some of it's changes but what can u do i guess yk ? super excited to see everyone's future performances w/ the series tho .. it'll be dior's season !! ok well, thanks for reading & commenting guys 🫶🏼 see u in the next chapter my lovelies !!